Love, journalism

🇮🇹 Insights from #ijf26 in Perugia. Plus: Wikipedia for independents

Hello from Barnaby’s bar! I’m a bit late for our writers’ café as I bumped into my ex-boss in the old town. Nancy just asked if I wanted my seat back. “I wasn’t sure if you were coming so I sat here.” Lol. We’re not that anal but we are creatures of habit - everyone has their favourite seat.

It’s day 1 of the International Journalism Festival so I’m following along on YouTube. Loving the ‘Perugia Uncut’ BTS - watching people pile in, waiting for the talk, watching them leave. Makes it more of an experience.

“How can you not be romantic about journalism?”

A question (and manifesto of sorts) from Joshi & Lea (The Mill & Zetland). Building on last year’s session about how companies need to stop thinking about news as ‘info’ and connect with people on an emotional level.

How do you do journalism that people can feel?

For about 100 years, we’ve done journalism that takes storytelling away.

I agree we’ve lost some of the magic of early journalism - gathering scenes to invite readers in, capturing the mood of a city. Writers like Alfred Polgar, Joseph Roth, and Joan Didion - where you see someone thinking out loud. Bringing wisdom with journalism. Writing in cafes. Pop-up newsrooms in town centres.

The Feuilleon ✨ ‘Talk of the town’ - a light-hearted, non-newsy supplement in French papers. Gossip, art and book reviews, fashion chronicles, and short literary pieces.

Some stories they’ve published recently that did this well and readers loved.

• In search of the secret garden

• Why has the Adelphi become Liverpool’s dirty secret?

• A ‘serious’ interview about the quality of the drinking water in Denmark. Lea remembers it because the journo starts cracking up (he has the best laugh). Proves it’s human - one thing AI can’t do.

Voice should seep into everything we do.

Lea’s written a bestselling book on butterflies - on beginnings, endings, and the life in between. She set off to see all 64 of Denmark’s butterflies one summer. 🦋

Here are the 10 principles of romantic journalism they practice daily. Pinned to the door of the Brufani bar so you don’t need your phone to read it. #10: Journalism is best done somewhere rowdy - so join us in the pub for a drink.

And some others I’ll be catching up on this week. Creator journalism now has its own tab!

• Creators and the future of journalism: insights on infrastructure building from the US and South Africa

• Building your own brand: risks and opportunities

• How are publishers responding to the ‘creator wave’?

• The Rebooting: Perugia edition

• Starting up a new media now: absolute folly or absolute necessity?

Also how to survive Perugia (and journalism in general) as an introvert – apparently the biggest response they’ve had to any panel!

It is full on – packed rooms and clashing talks so lots of running around FOMO. Most events have too many panels. Most papers publish too much. We need to do less (#5: publish less!).

Interesting to hear The Times’ strategy of publishing “fewer, better stories” has led to three months of record-breaking audience growth.

Next time, I’ll choose a few sessions per day and leave time for networking and exploring the city of chocolate (realised I was more interested in that than most of the talks).

Irl is where the magic happens - corridor chats, sunset aperitivo, fringe events. It gives you a sense of the mood and how people are feeling.

Shared moments. Having a cappuccino on the Brufani terrace overlooking the Umbrian countryside. Turned round and realised the woman next to me was doing the same thing so I said hello.

Things that have stayed with me:

• Eating hunks of focaccia (studded with rosemary) and people-watching on the piazza. Kept me going all day.

• Watching an Italian woman in a sequin jacket and glittery trainers walk her Chihuahua across the cobblestones to meet her friend for lunch.

• Jumping on the minimetro to explore the burbs - the cutest thing I’ve ever seen!

• Watching a man wave an escort away in the Brufani bar - talk to the hand. On to the next table. The guy next to me said he’d seen her there a few times.

• Saying no to a young Italian on the hill above the sacred convent in Assisi. He wanted to be my “tour guide“ as I was on my own. Very charming and persistent.

🌐 The Independent Journalism Atlas

Wikipedia for independents - a directory of 1165 indie journos and creators so you can see who’s doing what, where and how. Mapping the future of news media.

I’m now part of this - under travel, culture and positive news :) Great to see the infrastructure coming together.

It’s not indie vs institution - it’s what we build between the two.

Ciao for now,
Nika xo